Wednesday, December 9, 2015

GROHMANN MUSEUM REVISITED

A few weeks ago I uncovered a true gem of Milwaukee's visual arts community, the Grohmann Museum, housed at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), and posted a number of the photos I took during my initial visit there. Recently I revisited the museum to take a few more photos. Here is what I got.

First, this time I did get a shot of the building's exterior, including the atrium that was added at the time the building was converted to a museum.

On this second visit, too, I got a (technically) better shot of the atrium's ceiling, placing my camera on the atrium's floor, pointing up.

I liked the pattern that the spiral staircases created and got the following semi-abstract photo.

I also took a few more shots of the atrium's floor, which features mosaics that borrow from the museum's workplace and worker motif.

Among the highlights of the prior visit were the sculpture garden on the museum's roof and the office of the founder of the museum, Dr. Grohmann, also on the roof. The docent at the admission desk told me that the sculpture garden had been closed for the season, but weather was nice and she was kind enough to unlock the door to the roof's sculpture garden. Here are some of the shots that I was able to take.

As I explained before, each of these sculptures (except the one of a couple) is a replica of another, older sculpture. These replica sculptures, which are terrific and which line the perimeter of the roof, are actually larger than the ones they are modeled after. They make for a great scene looking out at Milwaukee's downtown.

One thing I learned was that these statues are not bolted in place. On my first visit I took a photo of a glassblower statue, emphasizing the figure's outsized hands. I wanted to see if I could improve on that shot on this visit. However, on this visit that particular statue was facing away from the roof garden rather than toward it. So no photo.

The docent was kind in another way. I mentioned that on my first visit I was able to look into the founder's roof level office, which features a number of stained glass windows, but I was not able to get into the office to get better photos of those windows. She offered to let me into the room, something not normally available. Here are shots I got of those windows.

Again, these windows are replicas of other, original art in the museum, here rendered as stained glass.

I also caught a number of the works of art in the museum proper, both two- and three-dimensional.

Here's a painting by Pieter Breughel, the Younger, entitled The Peasant Lawyer, along with a closeup of a detail.

Although there weren't many patrons in the museum each time I visited, I wasn't alone. In fact, there were members of an art class there creating models of some of the art.

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ABOUT ME

I currently have two blogs, SKEPTIC PHOTO, at http://skepticphoto.blogspot.com, and SKEPTIC REFLECTIONS, at http://skepticreflections.blogspot.com. I am hopeful that anyone who investigates either blog will find something of interest. I welcome any respectful comments and will try to respond to each.